@rachaebraddoc_0 wrote:
There are no deals though....resellers bots snap up all available stock and then they list all of the units on eBay, Gumtree and FB all at roughly the same extraordinary markup. I have been trying to get hold of one at a fair price for two years without luck so decided something had to change.
There's your problem, right there.
I agree with you that it is not a particularly ethical business model but it is not being fuelled by ebay or gumtree or FB.
I am sick to death of hearing covid blamed for everything. I could not give a toss if covid slowed down the release or distribution of the game or whatever. The fact remains that if the manufacturers wished to, they could pretty easily rearrange how they distributed the games. There are ways and means they could have made it much more difficult for resellers to snap up hundreds of units while normal citizens missed out.
But they didn't, did they!
I'd say they love doing it this way because of the image it gives their product, it makes their product look more desirable and gives them publicity.
Just think back to a couple of years ago when Coles released a range of 'little things', and people went mad over them. There was a cheap plastic display case you could buy to store them in, $4 it was. Only they ran out almost immediately. I saw them coming on to ebay. At first they were $30 each, then $40 or $50 and at the height, I saw one go for $120. The empty case alone and it didn't include postage. Was it a rip off? I believe people were stupid but some of these were auctions and you can't stop people being stupid.
Ask yourself this though-do you think anyone would pay $120 today? I doubt it. It isn't as if you can get replacements now, it is still a limited line, just as 'rare' as it was back then, but the mental frenzy has passed.
You are asking ebay to stop price gouging. But the problem with that is at what stage does it pass from acceptable profit margin to gouging? I believe ebay couldn't make that call even with medical or necessary type supplies such as face masks or hand sanitiser and the only way around it was to stop everyone from selling it except if they were some sort of authorised seller.
You are talking though about something that isn't a necessity, it is just a 'desirable', rather like the Little Things & their cases were at the time.
If you want to start a complaint or whatever, you need to get at the root cause.
Gutterpunkz said: Complain to the manufacturers, regarding their release and marketing strategies that are designed to create demand.
It is not an ebay problem or responsibility.
So there you have it. Ebay is just a selling platform. None of these companies are ethical as such, they are in it for profit. You said Companies are aligning with causes all of the time, taking ethical positions now which in turn garners them support by the community.
That's just to make themselves look good, it's all about image. If you want to tarnish an image, you need to campaign to zero in on the manufacturers, make them embarrassed. Not ebay, not FB etc
